956 Elisa


956 Elisa is a Flora asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 8 August 1921, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory. The V-type asteroid has a rotation period of 16.5 hours. It was named after Elisa Reinmuth, mother of the discoverer.

Orbit and classification

When applying the synthetic hierarchical clustering method by Nesvorný, Elisa is a member of the Flora family, a giant asteroid family and the largest family of stony asteroids in the main-belt. However, according to another HCM-analysis by Milani and Knežević, it is a background asteroid as this analysis does not recognize the Flora asteroid clan.
Elisa orbits the Sun in the inner asteroid belt at a distance of 1.8–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 6 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.20 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg Observatory on 9 August 1921, the night after its official discovery observation.

Naming

This minor planet was named after Elisa Reinmuth, mother of the discoverer Karl Reinmuth. The was mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955.

Physical characteristics

In both the Tholen- and SMASS-like taxonomy of the Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey, Elisa is a V-type asteroid. These asteroids are also called "Vestoids", thought to have originates from an ejecting impact event on 4 Vesta.

Rotation period

In July 2008, a rotational lightcurve of Elisa was obtained from photometric observations by Matthieu Conjat at Nice Observatory in France. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of hours with a brightness variation of magnitude. During the same opposition, Vladimir Benishek at Belgrade Observatory and Lucy Lim with the Spitzer-team determined a period for this asteroid of and hours with an amplitude of and magnitude, respectively.

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and the Spitzer Space Telescope, Elisa measures and kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of and, respectively. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for a Flora asteroid of 0.24 and calculates a diameter of 10.31 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.1. The WISE team has also published two smaller mean-diameters of and with higher albedos of and.